Wednesday, 27 August 2014

Amidst the
sideshows in danger of enveloping the election campaign, the issue of child
poverty stands out as one of the most important matters facing the country and
which deserves strong attention.

Most political parties
seem to recognise this and have developed their own responses to dealing with
it.

UnitedFuture’s
position is clear cut. We say every child not only deserves the best start in
life, but also deserves the love and attention of both parents, wherever
possible, no matter what their circumstances are. The family unit, however
structured, is therefore a vital component in the life and development of a
child, and every child has a family to provide the nurturing and support they
need. But, sadly, children have no choice over whom their parents are, or the
circumstances of their upbringing. So an important part of addressing the issue
of child poverty has to be about strengthening and empowering parents and
families to be the best that they can be.

At one – albeit important
– level, it is vital to ensure that families and their children have good
access to opportunity: jobs, income support measures like our Income Sharing
plan, good social services and access to quality early childhood education. UnitedFuture
supports all of those things but recognises that of themselves, no matter how
generous the programmes or the support mechanisms, they will not be enough in
all cases to ensure every child has the opportunities to be the best they can
be.

And that brings
us back to the critical role of parenting. Parents are arguably the most
important but most overlooked group in our society. They receive precious
little training or support for their role (buy a new dishwasher and it comes
with more information and back-up services than any new parent receives) and
even when parents do ask for help, they are the ones considered to have a “problem”
that needs resolving.

Very few parents,
if any, wilfully set out to fail as parents or to let their children down, so
we need to be investing much more in supporting and encouraging parents as they
carry out their role. That is arguably the area of greatest single focus in
ensuring that every child grows up in a decent and loving environment and then
gets access to all the things they need to live happy and contented lives.

My major concern
about some aspects of the child poverty debate is that parents are being left
out of the loop. Of course, there are economic issues to be addressed, and I am
not arguing against those, but the focus has to be as much on promoting good
parenting as it is on supporting children.

United Future is
the original family party. We championed family issues long before it was
fashionable to do so. And we have achieved much for families over the last
decade or so. The best way we can support our children today is to support our
families, something we will continue to do with vigour.